Wildlife Activist

Wildlife Activist

NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC NEWS
NATIONALGEOCRAPHIC.COM
New Jersey Agencies Face Off Over Bear Hunting
Jennifer Hue
National Geographic Channel
July 29, 2004
The New Jersey Fish and Game Council recently voted ten to one in favor of a black bear hunt this year, sparking a debate over how many bears actually live in the state and how to live with them.
In 2003 New Jersey held its first black bear hunt in over 30 years. Seven thousand hunting permits were issued, and a total of 328 bears where shot during a one-week season. The hunt was justified by a reported surge in the population of bears and the threat they represented to the general public. Now those population statistics are in question.
“Last year the Fish and Wildlife Division presented [ black bear population estimates at approximately 3,200 animals. The most recent estimate by our biologists is now less than half that number,” said Commissioner Bradley Campbell of the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) in New Jersey, who supported last yeai hunt. “The data does not currently document a rapidly expanding bear population.”
As a result, Campbell announced on July 20 that his office would not issue the permits necessary to conduct the hunt, rebuking the Fish and Game Council and throwing the hunt into controversy.
The Fish and Game Council is appointed by the governor of New Jersey and is composed of farmers, hunters, and fishers. It is empowered by the state legislature with independent responsibility to protect and provide an adequate supply of game and fish for recreation purposes. The New Jersey Division of Fish and Wildlife is a state environmental agency reporting to Commissioner Bradley.
Bradley’s decision not to issue permits for the hunting of black bears provoked praise from animal welfare groups and threats of a lawsuit from hunting advocacy groups.
“We want the hunt to continue, because we feel it is the most effective management tool for controlling bear populations,” said Beth Ruth, associate director of communications for the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance in Columbus, Ohio. “If the permits are not issued and a legal challenge can be brought, we will certainly take action,”
Where the Bears Are
Most of New Jersey’s bears live in Sussex County, in the northwest corner of the state. As the human population there steadily increases, encounters with bears inevitably rise. They are lured out of the forest by smells wafting out of trash cans and kitchens in suburbia. Pets have been killed and many people are fearful of living so close to the animals.
“The hunt is supposed to be justified by an exploding bear population and the risk that poses to people, but getting concrete numbers on bears is a constant problem,” said council member Jack Schrier, the one dissenting vote on New Jersey’s Fish and Game Council and its only nonhunter.
Bears have a small number of cubs, one or two at a time, making their populations sensitive to overhunting. “If you don’t know how many bears you have, then how can you know how many you should kill in a management plan? If current low-end population estimates are correct, the 328 bears killed last year represent around 20 percent of the total population—which is incredibly high,” Schrier continued.
If the proposed hunt moves forward—it’s unclear whether final authority for the hunt will rest with the Commissioner or the Fish and Game Council—it is scheduled for December 6 to II.
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Hunters would be required to have a hunting license and complete a safety course offered by Commissioner Bradley’s department. Either shotguns or muzzle loaders can be used. Hunters can shoot bears of either gender, cubs included. The minimum age for a hunter is ten.
“The type of gun that a ten-year-old can handle is not sufficient to kill a bear humanely, so we are concerned that kids with guns could cause a lot of injuries to bears,” said Linda Smith, leader of BEAR, Bear Education and Resource Group based in Hewitt, New Jersey. “Bears are not easy to kill; it often takes grown men multiple shots.”
Bear baiting is also legal in New Jersey. “Bear baiting involves putting out a food source for bears, like a bucket of jelly donuts, every day for a few weeks before the hunt. That way the bear gets used to coming to a predetermined area,” Smith said. “Then the day of the hunt, the hunter goes to the food pile and shoots the bear while it’s eating the donuts or whatever. Most people find that offensive.”
However, the U.S. Sportsmen’s Alliance defends bear baiting, a method used for hunting bears all across the country. “It ensures a cleaner shot, meaning a more humane death,” Ruth said.
Guns vs. Garbage-Pail Lids
Regardless of how the bears are killed, the question of whether hunting is an effective way to manage bear populations in suburban areas remains hotly contested.
“The problem with the hunt is that they are not targeting the bears who cause the problems,” said Susan Hagood, Wildlife Issues Specialist for the Humane Society of the United States in Washington, D.C. ‘The bears who happen to have a home range next to places where people live are the most likely to get into trouble. But hunters go out into the woods, a long way from people and towns, so they are killing the bears least likely to cause conflicts.”
Hagood argues that figuring out how to manage bears that show up in the suburbs—where hunting is not permitted—is the best way to reduce conflicts with people. ‘If someone sees a bear in their backyard or at their bird feeder, they usually call the police. So we believe training police to deal with bear conflicts is the safest and most effective way to proceed.”
The Humane Society of the U.S. hosts workshops that teach officers to scare bears off, which has proven effective in national parks like Yosemite, where people and bears are also living in close quarters.
“The goal is to use the bear’s dominance structure against the bear by convincing them that you are tougher, meaner, noisier, and stronger than they are. If you convince them of that, and that being around people is a recipe for discomfort, they will move on,” Hagood said.
That means shouting, waving arms, or crashing pots and pans, which often sends the bear back into the woods. “If that doesn’t work, a police officer can fire in the direction of the bear to scare them, or shoot rubber bullets or bean bags at their backsides. That always gets them moving.”
Depending on how habituated the bear is to people, it may take two or three rounds of scare tactics to get the animal to move on permanently.
“That approach needs to be partnered with a bear-safe community program, which means educating people about how to reduce the attractants that bring bears to their doorsteps,” Hagood said. That includes using bearproof garbage cans, feeding pets inside, and taking down bird feeders during prime bear season.
“Black bears are not aggressive. I think that’s the biggest misconception out there,” said Lynn Rogers, founder of the North American Bear Center in Ely, Minnesota. Rogers has studied bears for 38 years and was an advisor to New Jersey’s Fish and Game Council. He is also a hunter.
“Black bears aren’t after us, they are after our food. In the eastern United States, there have been only two people killed by black bears in the last hundred years. They are not a significant threat to the public,’ Rogers said. “Cut off an easy food supply, which is essentially what a loose-lid garbage can represents. and bears will move back into the forest.”
For more bear news, scroll down.
© 1996-2008 National Geographic Society. All rights reserved.
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Wildlife Biologist 2
Understanding Black Bears
Jemme B Robinson. Field & Stream. (South ed.). Los Angeles: Mar 1999. Vol. 103, Iss. 11; pg. 36, 3 pgs
Abstract (Summary)
Ursine behavior is a mystery to most people, but not to one extraordinary hunter, Ben Kilham. Kilham, who rescues and returns black bears to the wild, is profiled.
Full Text (1556 words)
Copyright Times Mirror Magazines Mar 1999
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Ursine behavior is a mystery to most, but not to one extraordinary hunter
LACK BEARS ARE INcreasing throughout their range, thanks to better management and the regrowth of forest on land that once was cleared. But as black bear numbers grow, more of them are getting in trouble with people who consider them a nuisance.
“People say they like to see bears, but if a bear destroys a $7 bird feeder those same people declare the bear a nuisance and want authorities to come and remove it,” says licensed wildlife rehabilitator Ben Kilham of Lyme, New Hampshire. “The sad fact is that most nuisance bears that are removed end up being destroyed because it is too expensive and time-consuming for authorities to handle bear complaints any other way.”
For six years, Kilham has been acting as “mother” to orphaned black bear cubs in the forested hills of Grafton County, New Hampshire. So far, he has helped 17 cubs learn how to survive in the wild.
Long after his bears have returned to a totally wild existence, they continue to acknowledge Kilham and seek him out when they find his scent within their territories. When he hikes into their haunts the rehabilitated bears frequently sense his arrival, find him, and join him for playful periods of affection and recognition. Sometimes they bring their wild companions along.
“We have great reunions,” Kilham relates, “They rub against me to cover me with bear scent and make affectionate moaning sounds. They like to have me lie down and take a nap with them. Sometimes they play rough, but they have never been hostile.”
These unusual events have been filmed by National Geographic as part of a special television feature. Kilham is currently at work on a book that documents his discoveries concerning black bear behavior.
Kilham claims that black bears are not the solitary animals that biological literature has claimed them to be. In fact, his close daily observation has convinced him that bears are in regular communication with one another, even though they may roam separately. He has determined that bear “marking trees” are not only territorial boundary markers, but are also important ursine message centers.
Using an electronic-eye camera mounted on a tree near a food patch used by bears, Kilham recorded the action at certain remote bear marking trees. He found that during a 24-hour period, several different bears appeared at the marking tree at separate hours to check the scents left by previous visitors and to add their own messages for those that followed.
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Understanding black bears
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“By checking activity at marking trees bears learn what other bears are eating and are tipped off to new food supplies as they become available,” Kilham explains. “This form of cooperation is manifested only by animals of the very highest intellect.”
AVOIDANCE TRAINING
A hunter himself, Kilham does not object to bear hunting, but he wanted to make sure that the bears he rehabilitated developed a strong fear of man so that they would not be easy prey for hunters.
LPhotograph
Ben Kilham with one of the 17 bears he has rescued and returned to the wild. “I wanted to make them afraid of people, dogs, and roads,” he explains.
To accomplish this Kilham teamed up with Gordon Wilder, a well-- respected bear houndsman from nearby Plainfield. Wider agreed to patrol roads with his dogs near Kilham’s study area.
When the bears crossed roads, they got chased by Wilder very aggressive hounds. Some were even treed. But the bears quickly learned they could escape from the hounds by climbing over ledges too steep for hounds to follow. They learned that trouble came when they left their scent trails on roads. By the time hunting season opened, the rehabilitated bears knew a lot about how to avoid hunters.
When authorities were being pressed by residents to get rid of three bears that had become nuisances in Hanover last summer, Kilham and Wider used the harassment-by-hounds technique to convince the bears to stay away from settled areas. The bears were rummaging in garbage cans, licking barbecue grills, and raiding bird feeders, as they often do when people leave fragrant food items outside in bear country.
Kilham and Wilder gave each bear a few good chases, which succeeded in putting the fear of dogs in them. The pair also asked people to remove the food sources. After that the bears stayed in the woods.
Kilham says that male bears are usually the easiest to train to avoid certain places because they have very large home ranges to which they have little allegiance. “If they get harassed at one food source, they have plenty of other food sources they can hit. A good scare can convince a male bear that he should avoid that place in the future,” he explains.
Females, however, are more difficult to evict because they have small territories to which they have very strong allegiance; therefore, they have fewer food sources to draw upon. Though females may be more persistent, if they are repeatedly harassed and frightened when they show up where they’re not wanted, they will avoid those places in the future. Furthermore, the sows will teach their cubs to avoid such places, too.
According to Kilham, hound harassment works because it reinforces how bears normally settle disputes. “In the wild, bears settle disputes with their teeth, and young bears quickly learn where they will be tolerated and where they won’t,” he notes. “Young bears have to establish their habits according to when and where they can find food without being attacked. If they find out early that they will be attacked and chased by hounds when they venture into certain areas, it’s similar to being chased out by another bear. They avoid that place in the future.”
BEAR FRIGHT
Kilham believes that bears frighten people inadvertently because they behave in ways that people misinterpret. For example, if you surprise a bear at close range, the bear may stand up and stare at you, huffing and showing its tongue. The bear is not being aggressive; it is simply trying to get your scent so that it can identify you. Huffing out
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warm, damp breath enhances the bear’s ability to gather scent from the air, and it uses its tongue as well as its nose to maximize its scent-gathering capability.
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Kilham’s observations have convinced him that bears are not the solitary creatures they are often made out to be.
Likewise, when a bear is treed it often moans and slobbers, and fluids may pour from its nose. The effect may be startling, but the bear is not being aggressive. It actually is exhibiting emotional stress.
‘The fluids flowing from the bear’s nose are bear tears,” says Kilham, “That bear is so scared of you it’s crying.”
THE INVISIBLE BEAR
If bear numbers are increasing, why don’t we see them in the woods more often?
Because, Kilham says, “Bears are brilliantly secretive.” Bears feel insecure in open places where they can be seen. They may use game or hiking trails when they feel safe, but they also have networks of secret trails. Those trails are always in the thickest, darkest, or steepest places. Bears spend most of their time in areas where people don’t go.
“The fact that you don’t see bears doesn’t mean that bears haven’t seen you,” he adds. When a bear senses the approach of humans, it disappears. But that doesn’t mean that it runs away. Bears have an almost magical ability to make themselves invisible when they don’t want to be seen. They use shadows, terrain, and cover to hide themselves so that you will not see them, even when they are actually quite close.
“A bear will often stand up behind a large tree and peek around the trunk at you,” Kilham says. “It moves around the tree as you pass, keeping an eye on you while keeping its body hidden from view behind the trunk.”
Ultimately, Kilham’s black bear behavior studies may significantly influence how humans relate to bears. As human bruin populations continue to overlap, under standing bear behavior is more vital than ever.
KEEPING BEARS AT BAY
In most cases, people can convince black bears not to become nuisances that return to their lawns or buildings by taking the offensive and false-charging at the bear and clapping their hands.
“If you clap hands or whack a broom on the porch railing, a bear understands that you are threatening,” Ben Kilham explains. “The bear may not seem alarmed, but it will be wary of you in the future.”
Unfortunately, most people are afraid of bears. When a bear shows up at a bird feeder, people run into the house and peek at it through the window. To a bear, such behavior demonstrates that people pose no threat.
“When a bear comes to a bird feeder its intention is to eat bird seed, not to attack people,” Kilham declares. “If you want to get rid of a nuisance bear, you must remove the food source that attracted it.”
If you locate bird feeders, barbecues, and garbage cans in open places on the busy side of your house as far as possible from cover, bears are unlikely to bother them. If you put them close to the woods on the quiet side of the house, you’re just asking for problems.-J.B.R.
Indexing (document details)
Subjects: Wildlife management, Bears, Personal profiles, Animal behavior
People: Kilham, Ben
Author(s): Jerome B Robinson
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Document types: Feature
Publication title: Field & Stream. (South ed.). Los Angeles: Mar 1999. Vol. 103, las. 11; pg. 36, 3 pgs
Source type: Periodical
ISSN: 87558602
ProQuestdocuflleflt ID: 39014196
Text Word Count 1556
Document LJRL: http://proquest.umi.com/pqdweb?did=3901 41 96&sid=1 7&Fmt=4&cli entld=1 0329&RQT=309&VNamePQD
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